The evolution from benign adenoma to colorectal carcinoma (CRC) involves specific nuclear events that change the cellular DNA structure and function toward a malignant phenotype. These changes include chromosomal instability (CIN) and microsatellite instability (MIN)1 and may involve the multiple nuclear “housekeeping” or chromatin binding proteins (CBP) that interact with DNA, maintaining structure, replication and repair processes. Drawing from their earlier research,2 Knol et al.3 used subcellular fractionation to examine changes in CBP profiles in CRC tissues compared with those in pre-cancerous adenomas.

The researchers used stored tissues surgically resected from patients undergoing treatment for colorectal disease (adenoma = 3, CRC = 5). Tissues were snap-frozen on removal and a histopathologist confirmed cancer morphology. The researchers determined the CIN and MIN subtype status of each CRC specimen and ensured that cancer cell content was above 70%.

Using their previously validated technique, the research team homogenized and fractionated the tissues to obtain the CBP nuclear extracts. They confirmed their precision using polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis for separation and identification of proteins involved, along with their nuclear involvement.

Following in-gel digestion, the peptides underwent nano liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) in an LTQ FT hybrid mass spectrometer (Thermo Scientific), with data analyzed against the human IPI database using the Sequest program (Thermo Scientific). Knol and co-workers used a label-free approach to quantify the peptides identified.

The researchers identified a total of 309 proteins differentially expressed by adenoma and CRC tissues. By constructing a nuclear annotation database, the researchers further reduced their list to 169 nuclear-associated proteins. Of these, 79 were significantly more abundant in CRC samples and 90 were increased in adenoma specimens. Where mRNA results were available for individual proteins (n=44), Knol and co-workers found that 59% of these showed concordant molecular and proteomics results.

Results were also submitted for BiNGO4 and DAVID (Database for Annotation, Visualization and Integrated Discovery) gene ontology analyses, using the STRING tool (Search Tool for the Retrieval of Interacting Genes/Proteins) to determine protein–protein interactions. By focusing on the nuclear-localized proteins, the researchers found their results clustered in various functional groups for each sample set.

In the pre-malignant adenoma samples, the researchers found that the 90 proteins showing increased abundance were involved in chromosome/chromatin organization and included various histones. They also noted proteins involved in DNA repair and RNA processing.

In summarizing their results, the researchers comment that their research model identifies nuclear proteins that could play a role in the change from a pre-malignant status to malignancy in colon cancer. They describe their work as showing “a specific shift in the chromatin landscape going from adenomas to carcinomas,” suggesting that further exploration here could yield new therapeutic options, as well as valuable biomarker discoveries.